


The Shadow

by missmaddie



Category: Phandom/The Fantastic Foursome (YouTube RPF)
Genre: M/M, Phan - Freeform, superhero au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-25
Updated: 2015-12-25
Packaged: 2018-05-09 05:12:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,253
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5526704
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/missmaddie/pseuds/missmaddie
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Him and Dan aren't dating per say. But he'd be lying if he said they weren't a...something. A something, in italics. Something tangible between them, in their painfully stretched out jokes and banter, in their looks. </p><p>The thought of losing that makes his throat seize up. 6 years have made them Dan&Phil and he'd realized sometime around 2012 he'd rather loose an arm than the<br/>ampersand. </p><p>Or: Dan's a superhero and Phil is high key oblivious</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Shadow

Dan's got bruises on his hips. Phil notices while they're in the middle of filming Internet News, when Dan reaches for a prop across the table and winces. Phil shouldn't be looking, wouldn't be looking, but onced he notices them, once he's already looking, he can't stop. 

They're so dark. They're finger shaped indents splayed across his abdomen, green and purple and distracting. 

Something funny stirs in his gut. Something green and solid and vaguely cheese like. Jealousy. Phil's not the jealous one. He leaves it to Dan, the bitchy twitter interactions, the pout, the slight tension around his eyes when a certain name gets mentioned. Charlie. Whenever Charlie was mentioned. 

Which is ridiculous. Phil isn't the one with bruises all over him. No, Phil's the one who hadn't kissed anyone in months, who'd angled long and hard for a co-owned channel, the one who was falling asleep thinking of wide brown eyes. 

Phil keeps his eyes on Dan as they end the segment about Kristen Stewart. He recites his lines, careful to keep his eyes focused on the camera, to keep himself from faltering. Thank god he was the one who wrote it -- a five minute rapport about the newest viral video The Shadow, a masked man who'd been caught on film stopping two thugs who were holding up a Tesco's--. 

He catches himself starring at Dan as they pack up and leave the YouTube creator space. Him and Dan aren't dating per say. But he'd be lying if he said they weren't a...something. A something, in italics. There was something tangible between them, in their painfully stretched out jokes and banter, in their looks. Something Phil's having a harder and harder time ignoring. How can he, when him and Dan bump shoulders walking down to the road, as they brush hands while waiting for the taxi.

The thought of losing that makes his throat seize up. 6 years have made them Dan&Phil and he'd realized sometime around 2012 he'd rather loose an arm than the  
ampersand. 

He means to bring it up subtly, maybe find out who this person was, how long Dan's been seeing him, see how Phil stacked up against them. 

Dinner is simple, vegan stir fry courtesy of Phil because Dan can't even stand up without making some sort of whimper. Dan shoots him a grateful look that makes Phil weak in the knees as he piles food onto Dan's plate. It's quiet, because Phil can't stop staring, and can't find a casual way to bring it up. "What happened? Fall up the stairs again?" Stupid. "Someone did a number on you, huh?" Stupid. "We should get you some concealer, before the fans freak out," Even stupider. It's Dan, who breaks the symphony of chewing and fork on plates. "Hey, Phil?" "Yeah?" "What do you think about The Shadow?" It's the same lead in that he'd asked earlier, the same scripted one that Phil had written at two in the morning, because he'd put it off so long. It's the same, minus the audience. "I dunno," He says, swallowing. "It's like something out of the Avengers, I guess." "In a good way?" Dan asks, cocking his head. "Maybe." "Maybe?" "If he's a good guy," Phil says, shrugging. "What else could he be?" "A weirdo," Phil says, watching the lines of Dan's face tense. "Why would he be a weirdo?" "Why we he put on a bondage outfit and volunteer to get his arse kicked?" "The same reason police do," Dan says, his voice sharp. "You think he's a cop?" Phil asks. "I asked what you think," Dan says, pushing his plate away. "What's going on?" Phil asks, instead. "Nothing," Dan says, after a moment. "Dan,--" Phil starts. 

"I'm fine," Dan says, shoveling food into his mouth. 

"Dan-" He tries again as Dan reaches over him and turns up the volume on the TV. Dinner ends and so does their conversation, punctuated with Dan slamming his door, leaving Phil alone in the living room. 

It doesn't get better. He notices Dan waking up earlier, at home less, taking something for pain more often. 

They talk about The Shadow on The Internet News, but the conversation dies when the camera stops rolling, when Danisnotonfire and AmazingPhil fade back to Dan and Phil. 

They're in the middle of a Sims video, when Phil finally asks about the bruises. Phil had knocked over their tripod, and it had fallen onto Dan's chest. Their tripod weighs 11 pounds. There's no reason for Dan to wince. He stretches, five minutes after Phil's finished teasing him about his delicate skin, revealing an ugly green patch across his skin. Phil can't stop the words from coming out, once Innocent, but now twisted by silence and jealousy and the frustrating fact that him and Dan have been having awkward stilted conversations for weeks. 

"Someone did a number on you, huh?" 

"What?" Dan asks, as Dil drops another plate. 

"I'm not blind, Dan," He shouldn't snap. He knows that, as soon as he does. 

"It's nothing," Dan starts. 

"It's 3 and half bottles of aspirin in three weeks," Phil corrects. 

"It's none of your business," Dan snaps, standing up abruptly, leaving Phil and Dil alone with a still recording camera.

It's when Phil wakes up, two weeks later, in the weird hours between too late and too early, that it all comes together. Dan comes in around 3 am, through the window, stumbling and knocking over his speakers. He's breathless and sweaty, blood on Lycra and bruised skin. Phil had been outside his door, getting a drink of water. He didn't know what he was expecting, when he threw open the door, but it wasn't Dan, in a familiar looking black suit, straddling the windowsill. Phil can't believe it. Dan Clark Kented him. And Phil fell for it. His best friend, roommate, his something was the shadow. 

"Phil! Jesus fucking Hell!" He almost falls back out. 

"The Shadow?" Phil asks, incredulously. 

Dan pales. 

"Why didn't you tell me?" Phil asks, sounding more bitter than he means to. 

"Phil." Dan starts, joining him on the bed, "I didn't want you to get hurt. We saw+9 Spider-Man - we knows what happens when-" 

"You- I -" Phil tries to wrap his head around this. 

"Please don't be mad." 

"How even-" 

"I've always wanted to do something big, important. To help." 

"So you're some kind of what? Superhero activist?"

"Phil," he says, eyes wider than the moon. 

"You can't even run a mile!" 

"I don't do much running. Mostly get punched." 

"Can I see?" He asks, before he can stop himself. 

Dan quirks his mouth but complies and strips off his shirt and Phil gasps. Cuts and bruises dot his chest like children's drawings on walls. Sporadic and hypnotic. 

"Dan," he breaths, looking up him. "I thought," he stops, tracing one of the longer, deeper looking cuts. "Jesus." 

"Thought what?" 

"You were sleeping with someone else." 

"Else?" Dan quirks an eyebrow. 

"Uh -" Phil tries to backpedal but Dan laughs low, and Phil can feel the tension, the thing between them shift and change and swell and then they're both leaning in and if this was a movie the music would swell and would probably be The Brobecks or something else delightfully indie. Then Dan uses his tongue and Phil's focusing on something that is definitely not The Brobecks.

Dan pulls back and he flushes and his eyes are almost black and Phil wants to make new bruises on Dan's hips. 


End file.
